You’re absolutely right, they’re not bad. I always considered them as more concept-y type things, just to establish an appearance so that other artists can have at it.It's not that his artwork sucks, it's that the TCG keeps on using his "stock" artwork. I remember back when Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge were around and all of the Sugimori artwork there were original to those sets.
If TPCI isn’t going to illustrate these, why don’t they do another artist contest and a bunch of them get thrown into the trainer spot? That’s a cool idea.
“You may illustrate one of the following:”
Guzma and Hala
Mallow and Lana
Kiawe and Sophocles
Or something like that.
my apologies if none of these cards exist, I’m not up to date with all the blandness TPCI’s been producing.